Qualcomm Acquires Alphawave IP for $2.4 Billion to Expand AI Data Center Presence

Qualcomm has announced its agreement to acquire British-Canadian semiconductor company Alphawave IP Group for approximately $2.4 billion through its wholly-owned subsidiary Aqua Acquisition Sub LLC, aiming to expand its presence in the AI data center market and reduce reliance on smartphone chips. Alphawave's expertise in high-speed wired connectivity and compute technologies complements Qualcomm's power-efficient CPU and NPU cores, including its next-generation Qualcomm Oryon CPU and Hexagon NPU processors, positioning the combined entity to meet growing demand for high-performance, low-power computing driven by AI inferencing. Alphawave shareholders will receive 183 pence per share, a 96% premium over the price before acquisition talks were disclosed, and the deal is expected to close by early 2026 pending regulatory and shareholder approvals. Alphawave’s stock experienced a sharp rise following the announcement, reflecting investor optimism despite a recent slight pullback amid a strong year-to-date rally. Analysts generally rate Qualcomm as an 'Outperform' stock with an average price target indicating potential upside, underscoring positive market sentiment about the acquisition's strategic value. Both companies' leadership emphasized that the acquisition marks a significant milestone, enabling them to enhance technological capabilities and better serve data center infrastructure and AI applications.